Prediction and learning in the infant brain: From auditory perception to social interaction

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Functioning in the world requires that we continually predict the future-what is expected to happen as well as when-in order to prepare timely optimal responses. For example, our ancestors needed to predict where and when a predator or prey would go next to be in the right place at the right time. The phonemes of speech and the notes of music occur in rapid streams and, once sounded, are gone. Deciphering and organizing such streams in real time into meaningful units such as words and phrases relies on prediction and error monitoring. Studies in adults indicate that the brain continually predicts what sounds it expects next and compares its predictions with what actually happens. Mismatches between predicted and actual states generate error signals that can be measured with electroencephalography (EEG). Predictive errors engage attention and lead to learning that minimizes future prediction errors. The proposed research focuses on the development of predictive processes in infancy and how they shape development. The studies in Part 1 examine the development of predictive coding (what is expected) and predictive timing (when it is expected). Predictive coding will be measured with EEG responses to the occasional omission of tones in a sequence of tones, comparing omissions that are predictable to omissions that are not predictable. It is expected that predictive coding will improve over the first year after birth. Predictive timing will be studied with rhythmic sequences, as their regularity enables prediction of when the next beats are expected. The development of oscillatory brain responses entrained to the tempo of the rhythmic stimuli will be examined, and whether enhanced neural entrainment (good timing prediction) leads to enhanced perception the sounds. Additional questions include whether infants form multisensory predictions for concurrent streams of auditory and touch stimuli and whether predictive learning is enhanced by active engagement with an adult. The studies in Part 2 examine prediction in interpersonal interactions between mothers and infants. Interactive coordination between parents and infants is thought relate to optimal social, emotional and cognitive development. In adults, nonverbal communication is reflected in subconscious synchronization of movements and the influence of one person's actions on the future actions of the other. Here we use motion capture and mathematical models to measure movement coordination between parents and infants and how it relates to stress, autonomic nervous system function and early language development. Predictive processing is fundamental to perception, cognition, learning and social development. Understanding its development in typical populations could lead, for example, to early identification of infants at risk for learning disabilities, and interventions with mothers suffering post partum depression who are at risk for poor social interaction with their infant.